At parties and openings, all the talk is about who’s going to take Ken Salazar’s seat in the U.S. Senate — it’s a lot more fun than talking about the economy — and what spot might then open up. If outgoing Speaker of the House Andrew Romanoff gets the nod,…
On Monday, Governor Bill Ritter offered Colorado journalists an advance look at what we can expect from the next legislative session: belt-tightening. But there’s one sure, if risky, way to fill Colorado’s coffers: Sell the Senate seat that could soon be vacated when Senator Ken Salazar moves to a Secretary of…
While the Obama cabinet carousel — Ritter! Salazar (Ken)! Salazar (John)! Michael Bennet! Salazar (Ken, again)! — continues to go ’round, with a name thrown out each week (although now, with Ken Salazar back in the ring for Interior, we’re on repeats) — Colorado’s top Dems will gather at the Governor’s…
Since 1951, Gennaro’s Lounge has been a landmark on South Broadway. Joe Gennaro opened the place; his son, Leonard, ran it for decades. And when Jason Sheehan visited Gennaro’s last year, he found it a classic example of the kind of neighborhood Italian joint that you find across…
Denver’s 150th birthday is turning out to be a bust, with the financial crisis the major party pooper. Civic leaders have been brainstorming how to keep Colorado’s economy from falling any further. Yesterday, they gathered with Mayor John Hickenlooper and Governor Bill Ritter at the Denver City & County Building…
One of the last vestiges of Fred Kummer’s reign as a Denver hotelier disappeared yesterday. The two mammoth horse sculptures that had reared their ugly heads in the lobby of the former Adam’s Mark Hotel for years were hauled out of the building (and not easily — they each weigh…
There are far worse places to spend a snowy day than sitting inside Club 404, the saloon that Jerry Feld bought 57 years ago from a man who’d opened it on the day Prohibition ended. When he became its proud owner, Jerry was a student at the University of Denver,…
The Sunday before Thanksgiving, I headed up I-25 to Fort Collins and then turned east for Severance, the town “where the geese fly and the bulls cry,” to give thanks for a tradition restored. Bruce’s Bar has been serving Rocky Mountain oysters since the mid-’50s, almost without interruption — unlike…
Andrew Hudson is busier than a business reporter tracking the latest layoffs. That’s because he’s become the first person people call when they’re laid-off, or think they could be laid-off. Hudson has made it his job to let people know where the jobs are. And since he specializes in communications,…
Cocktail party conversation isn’t easy this holiday season — if anyone’s holding cocktail parties, that is. Two safe topics: the Broncos (since the team’s still winning) and the weather — which is as Colorado-wacky as ever. A beautiful weekend, then snow today; record highs last Tuesday, record lows on Thursday…
Jinx. Last month, the two dailies stopped arriving at my house. The last time I’d reupped my subscription, I hadn’t been able to commit beyond six months — I simply didn’t think that both papers would be around that long. And in November, the end of one seemed so inevitable…
Suddenly, all the political pundits are talking about a Salazar going to Washington. Not Ken Salazar, who’d apparently rather stay in his Senate seat than move to the Cabinet (but might be up for a future opening on the Supreme Court, where he’d be the first Latino justice), but his brother, John. And the talk…
For more photos of the building in jeopardy, go to westword.com/slideshow. I just watched history being made. Or at least recognized. The last time I attended a Landmark Preservation Commission meeting, the commissioners voted to remove the oldest building on my historic block from landmark protection (“The View,” May 27,…
The national news is full of Colorado’s vituperative lover flaming his ex on the Internet (and getting smacked by this state’s bizarre criminal libel statute) and a future vituperative lover giving dating advice at the age of nine (here’s just one international sample, from Australia, as well our October blog…
Fresh from his ten-day eco-devo trip to Asia, Governor Bill Ritter is now off on the East Coast, attending a Democratic governors’ conference, talking with the Obama team — and definitely not interviewing for a spot in the cabinet, insists his spokesman, Evan Dreyer. Shortly after the polls closed on…
Buy local week continues through December 5. And while, with Barack Obama’s appointments announcement today, it doesn’t look like many Coloradans will be heading to D.C., there’s plenty to do here at home. Nothing gets the home fires burning like neighborhood fights, and Denver’s Neighborhood Stabilization Program — created by the…
Either Denver International Airport really has its act together — or travel is way, way down this holiday season. I arrived at DIA at 7 a.m., parked in the garage — the $18-a-day fee is my way to atone for spending Thanksgiving, and considerable dollars, in Arizona rather than Denver,…
Focus Property Group is striking out with some neighbors in the Ballpark neighborhood. The company wants to put a 7-Eleven at 2425 Broadway, between Silver State Lofts and the PBA Architectural firm, and across the street from the Granada Fish Company. Tonight at 6 p.m., representatives of Focus, as well…
When he kicked off Denver ArtsWeek earlier this month, Mayor John Hickenlooper echoed former Governor Dick “Duty to Die” Lamm when he told the crowd, “We all have a duty to shop.” Now Denverites will get a chance to put their money where Hick’s mouth is, when the mayor and assorted…
It’s the economy, stupid. While chairmen of the Big Three auto-makers jetted by private plane to Washington, D.C., looking for a handout last week, hundreds of out-of-work Coloradans lined up before each prospective employer at job fairs across the state last Thursday. And on Saturday, 40,000 people descended on a…
In retrospect, Denver might have been smart to delay its 150th anniversary celebration to next May, to mark the day in 1859 when the towns of Aurora and Denver officially merged into the start of the city we know today. Back in 1959, the city and state had quite a…
Jamey Fader, with pants. “Tequila is a very expressive spirit,” says Sofia Partida, whose family tequila was first introduced to this country in Colorado in 2005. “That’s why we get so expressive when we talk about it.” And how. “Tequila has its fun side,” says chef Jamey Fader. “Like Sometimes…
